SCLS Live Steam Railroading Glossary

Track laborer. Name may have originated from the gander-like tremulations of a man tamping ties, or from the old Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, which made tamping bars, claw bars, picks, and shovels

GANGWAY

Space between the rear cab post of a locomotive and her tender

GARDEN

See yard

GAS HOUSE

Yard office

GATE

Switch

GAY CAT

Tramp held in contempt by fellow vagrants because he is willing to work if a job comes along

GENERAL

Yardmaster, abbreviated Y.M.

GET THE ROCKING CHAIR

Retire on a pension

GET YOUR HEAD CUT IN

Boomer slang for "wise up"

GIRL or OLD GIRL

Affectionate term for steam engine. The locomotive, like the sailing ship, is often called "she" instead of "it"

GIVE HER THE GRIT

Use sand

GLASS CARS

Passenger cars

GLIM

Switchman's or trainman's lantern

GLIMMER

Locomotive headlight

GLORY

String of empty cars. Also death, especially by accident

GLORY HUNTER

Reckless, fast-running engineer

GLORY ROAD

Sentimental term for railroad

GO HIGH

Same as deckorate

GO-TO-HELL SIGNAL

Signal given with violent motion of hand or lantern

GOAT

Yard engine. (See yard)

GOAT FEEDER

Yard fireman

GODS OF IRON

Huge, powerful locomotives

GON

Gondola, or steel-sided, flat-bottom coal car

GONE FISHING

Laid off

GOO-GOO EYE

Locomotive with two firedoors

GOOSE

To make an emergency stop

GOOSE HER

Reverse a locomotive that is under headway

GRAB IRON

Steel bar attached to cars and engines as a hand bold

GRABBER

Conductor of a passenger train. (He grabs tickets)

GRAMOPHONE

Obsolete term for telephone

GRASS WAGON

Tourist car. (Tourists like scenery)

GRASSHOPPER

Old type of locomotive with vertical boiler and cylinders

GRAVE-DIGGER

Section man

GRAVEYARD

Siding occupied by obsolete and disused engines and cars; scrap pile

GRAVEYARD WATCH

12.01 A.M. to 8 A.M., or any midnight shift, so called because that shift includes the quietest hours of the day

GRAZING TICKET

Meal book

GREASE MONKEY

Car oiler

GREASE THE PIG

Oil the engine. (See hog)

GREASY SPOON

Railroad eating house. Bill of fare is colloquially known as switch list, fork is hook, butter is grease pot, hotcakes are blind gaskets, and beans are torpedoes

GREEN EYE

Clear signal. (At the time Cy Warman wrote his celebrated poem, "I Hope the Lights Are White," the clear signal was white and green meant caution. This was changed years ago because of the fact that when a red or green signal lens broke or fell out it exposed a white, thus giving a clear board to engineers even though the signal itself was set to stop or go slow)

GREENBACKS

Frogs for rerailing engines or cars

GREENBALL FREIGHT

Fruit or vegetables

GREETINGS FROM THE DS

Train orders from the dispatcher

GRIEVER

Spokesman on grievance committee; Brotherhood or Union representative at an official investigation

GRIND

Shay-geared engine

GROUNDHOG

Brakeman, yardmaster, or switch engine

GRUNT

Locomotive engineer. Traveling grunt is road foreman of engines (hogs). Grunt may also be a lineman's ground helper; grunting is working as a lineman's helper

GUN

Torpedo, part of trainman's equipment; it is placed on the track as a signal to the engineer. Also the injector on the locomotive that forces water from tank to boiler. To gun means to control air-brake system from rear of train